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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Federal authorities said Wednesday they have arrested 75 people in Puerto Rico on charges of bilking the Social Security system of millions of dollars in a scam that involved doctors and a former Social Security employee who approved bogus applications for disability payments.

The Justice Department said the former Social Security employee, Samuel Torres Crespo, charged $6,000 to write the bogus applications, while the three doctors received between $150 and $500 to write medical reports justifying the disability.

The disability program was already under fire from Capitol Hill, where analysts said it is running out of money and where lawmakers said it is not doing enough to crack down on fraud.More

Throughout the year, lefties, like me, are dealt a rough hand. We're forced to put up with items such as doors, scissors and computer keyboards — to name a few — that are crafted for right-handers. But today we unite!

According to lefthandersday.com, International Left-Handers Day was first celebrated in 1992 as an opportunity for left-handers everywhere to celebrate their uniqueness in "Lefty Zones" and increase public awareness of the "struggles left-handers are forced to deal with on a day-to-day basis." Right-handers are encouraged to do everything left-handed for the day.

Only about 10% of the world's population is left-handed. There are some everyday advantages to being a lefty. Left-handers are more likely to pass their driver's test on the first try, a study shows. They are also more apt to deliver a better left hook and be a part of Mensa, the world's largest and oldest high IQ society.

However, there are a few pitfalls to being left-handed. Health conditions tend to affect left-handed people more than right-handed people. In fact, autism, dyslexia and stuttering are more commonly found in lefties. And according to randomhistory.com, left-handers tend to die at a younger age — almost nine years earlier than their right-handed contemporaries. Yikes!

Welfare pays more than a minimum-wage job in 35 states, creating little incentive for Americans to take entry-level work and likely increasing their long-term dependency on government help, according to a new study by the libertarian think tank Cato Institute.

The finds come 17 years after the Clinton administration, with bipartisan support from Congress, passed landmark welfare reform legislation that was supposed to move Americans away from entitlements and into the workforce.

However, “welfare benefits continue to outpace the income that most recipients can expect to earn from an entry-level job,” the study authors said. “And the balance between welfare and work may actually have grown worse in recent years.”More

Citing Obamacare, the United Parcel Service plans to remove 15,000 spouses from its health care plan because they are eligible for coverage elsewhere.

Rising medical costs, “combined with the costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, have made it increasingly difficult to continue providing the same level of health care benefits to our employees at an affordable cost,” UPS said in a memo to employees, Kaiser Health News reported.

UPS expects the move will save about $60 million a year, company spokesman Andy McGowan said. More

There have been horror stories in abundance recently about the misbehavior of child protective services workers across America who abuse parental rights and traumatize children.Some of those tales have come out of Pennsylvania, and now a coalition of parents is saying they’ve had enough.

They are organizing under the name of the Operation CYS Reform and Family Law Reform and aim to stamp out abuse first in the state, and then nationwide.Read more

Steve Hayes told viewers on "Special Report with Bret Baier" that it isn't just Republicans who oppose ObamaCare."I think it's totally disingenuous for the president to pretend that the opposition, or the problems with ObamaCare, are coming from a group of Republicans in Washington," said Hayes, senior writer at The Weekly Standard and Fox News contributor.

The health care debate comes after President Obama focused his weekly address on implementing the health care law, saying Republicans are "having a debate between hurting Americans who will no longer be denied affordable care just because they've been sick - and harming the economy and millions of Americans in the process."

If you want to get a very clear idea of the utter contempt in which our corrupt political class holds the voters who put them in office, look no further than the Congressional Obamacare exemption. Don’t confuse this with previous exemptions a bystander Congress has allowed the Obama administration to award supportive unions and other politically favored groups.

This exemption is specifically for Congress.

Under Obamacare Members of Congress and staff are required to buy individual health insurance from state insurance exchanges, just like their constituents Ma & Pa Kettle.More

If you caught the NBC Nightly News segment last week about one of the unintended consequences of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), you’ve probably guessed where I’m going with this. For those who missed it, NBC’s Lisa Myers reported speaking with “almost 20 small businesses and other entities around the country” and that “almost all said that because of the new law, they’d be cutting back hours for some employees.” Of course, NBC was merely adding to the extensive media coverage of organizations reducing workers’ hours to limit ACA costs. But the Obama administration doesn’t see why there’s such a fuss. According to Myers:The White House dismisses these examples as “anecdotal.” The president’s top economic advisor [CEA Chair Jason Furman] told us “he sees no systematic evidence the health care law is having an adverse impact on the number of hours employees are working.”

So, should we take our government’s word and dismiss the examples as anecdotal?

Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson is apparently fiercely anti-abortion. In fact, he believes the United States’ acceptance of the practice is proof that the country has strayed far from her founding principles.

The popular television star in a video that has just now gone viral can be seen preaching to an audience in Pennsylvania about God, the Bible, and the Founding Fathers.

“Listen, from the time you started inside your mother’s womb, Thomas Jefferson had it right,” he said in a video that was posted to YouTube in January, “you have the God-given right to life for crying out loud.”More

A new study finds that a New York mother of two is eligible for $38,004 in welfare benefits--a sum more than the annual salary of a New York entry-level school teacher.

The study, conducted by the CATO Institute, says in many states welfare pays better than work. Topping the list of wage-equivalent benefits for a mother and two children was Hawaii at $60,590. Idaho came in last with $11,150.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Beau Biden, the Delaware attorney general and the son of Vice President Joe Biden, is being evaluated at a cancer center in Texas, according to people with knowledge of his condition.

Two people familiar with the situation said Biden was being evaluated Tuesday at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, one of the leading cancer centers in the nation. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak in an official capacity.

Biden's wife and other family members, including the vice president, were with him. The vice president's office said he planned to remain in Houston on Wednesday. A hospital spokeswoman said she did not have any information.More

A stunning 57% of undergraduates used federal student aid to help pay for college in 2012; dramatically higher than the 47% in the pre-crisis 2007 year. As the WSJ reports [2], an average of $8,200 per recipient is paid out by the government coinciding with climbing tuition costs (credit fuels growth?). The report, via the Education Department, noted that "even students from households we would consider middle-income are increasingly eligible and are increasingly taking advantage of Pell grants," as the number of full-time students who received Pell grants in families with incomes between $60,000 to $80,000 shot up to 18% in 2011-12 from 2% in 2007-08. Just another wealth transfer scheme or moar better bargains for the middle class.

Preface: German pastor Martin Niemöller initially supported Hitler. But he later opposed him, and was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp for years.

Niemöller learned the hard way that keep your head down doesn’t keep one out of trouble … in the long run, it increases the danger to all of us.

Niemöller wrote a brilliant poem – First They Came – about the manner in which Germans allowed Nazi abuses by failing to protest the abuse of “others” … first gypsies, gays, communists, and Jews, then Catholics … and eventually everyone.

The 2013 Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing privates companies in the U.S. includes 19 from Maryland.

The businesses cover a wide range of industries from technology and energy to health care and government contracting.

Inc. magazine's rankings are based on a three-year revenue growth rate, from 2009-2012. The list appears in the magazine’s September issue. Videology, led by Scott Ferber, came in at No. 137 and is the highest Baltimore area company on the list.More

In Maryland, we believe in fighting for our most vulnerable families. That’s why, the O’Malley-Brown Administration is taking tough steps to stop unscrupulous financiers from preying on Maryland families.

Payday loans—where lenders charge sky-high rates that grossly exceed the legal limits—contribute to a vicious cycle of debt for vulnerable consumers. They are also one of the leading sources of complaints we receive each year. Through our efforts, we are combating illegal payday lending and continuing to crack down on unlicensed online lenders to protect our hard-working families.Our Division of Financial Regulation is working with Maryland consumers and local banks to identify lenders around the country that are facilitating this unscrupulous behavior by processing the illegal payday transactions and debiting consumers’ bank accounts for monthly payments. We are working together with federal bank regulators to identify the banks involved and stop the activity. Additionally, I have issued a Final Order against Western Sky Financial, LLC finding the company used predatory tactics and charged excessive interest rates. While the company has appealed the decision, it is prohibited from collecting or attempting to collect on any loans made to Maryland consumers. Numerous states have initiated similar actions including one by the New York State Attorney General just last week.

Check out yesterday’s Baltimore Sun story on our continuing fight against unlicensed lenders. It’s key point: “Maryland’s financial regulator is trying to stop illegal online payday loans by going after the banks that help make the loans possible. …Maryland is one of 15 states that effectively ban such loans by capping the interest rate that can be charged on small loans.”

As long as unlicensed lenders keep wrangling to prey on Maryland consumers, we’ll keep working to stop them.

“Things will need to be fixed, and you need to get caught trying to fix them.”-- Former President Bill Clinton speaking to House Democrats about problems with ObamaCare at a policy retreat in February.

As far as a product launch goes, President Obama’s new health-insurance entitlement program is looking pretty dire.

The latest system defect is the government’s hiring of a former lobbyist for the Obama-allied community organizing group, ACORN, to run a “viral video” contest in which young applicants document their affection for the law.

Many leaders – From Jay Sekulow to David Cerullo of INSP have stood up and are telling President Obama and all decent Americans – It’s time to take sides in Egypt. Egypt’s Christian community is under assault from jihadist radicals. Churches are burning, including ancient cathedrals. Nuns are captured and paraded through the streets. Christian homes and businesses are attacked.

Christian children are dying. The jihadist Muslim Brotherhood, furious that it has lost power, is taking out its rage on Egyptian Christians. It’s past time for a clear message from the United States.

Petition to Defend Egypt’s Christians; Defeat the Muslim Brotherhood

Dear President Obama: It’s time to take sides – for religious freedom and against the Muslim Brotherhood. Comply with human rights requirements. American aid must be conditioned on the protection of Christians, and it must be used to oppose our jihadist enemy, the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Pentagon says same-sex spouses of service members can line up for official identification cards beginning Sept. 3. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen says service members will have to show a valid marriage certificate from a state or country that recognizes same-sex marriages. TRICARE also opens to same-sex spouses that day. Christensen says other benefits, including allowances for basic housing and family separation, are retroactive from the date of the Supreme Court's decision on the Defense of Marriage Act, June 26.

SALISBURY, Md. (AP) -- Two men stand anxiously at a classroom entrance and another lies seriously wounded beside a wall outside. "Don't come down here, I'm telling you -- I'll kill 'em," a man inside the classroom shouts to officers snaking down the corridor with guns drawn. A brief attempt at negotiations quickly fizzles as the officers approach the room, yell to the men inside to get down and take out the gunman in a swift firefight.

The drill is part of a training program the FBI is helping run for local law enforcement agencies nationwide. Acting on a White House directive after last December's Connecticut school massacre, and partnering with a Texas-based training center, the FBI this year has been teaching best practices for responding to mass shootings.

"You don't need negotiators, you don't have time for SWAT teams, you need to get in there as fast as possible and stop the killing," said Chris Combs, who runs the FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center, the headquarters command post for major emergencies, and is involved in running the program.More

A military judge brings some closure to the three-year-old WikiLeaks saga today. She'll sentence Army Pvt. Bradley Manning for leaking classified information to the web site. Prosecutors want Manning to spend 60 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act and other laws. Manning's defense attorneys are hoping for 25 years. They have tried to paint a sympathetic portrait of a gay and idealistic, if misguided, soldier in a repressive military culture that ignored signs of mental illness. Manning apologized to the courtroom last week, saying he thought he was helping and not hurting people.

A few weeks ago a human-interest story from South Africa was reported internationally.

As described in the Wall Street Journal this past Friday:On Aug. 4, Graham and Sheryl Anley, while yachting off the coast of South Africa, hit a reef, capsizing their boat. As the boat threatened to sink and they scrambled to get off, Sheryl’s safety line snagged on something, trapping her there. Instead of freeing his wife and getting her to shore, Graham grabbed Rosie, their Jack Russell terrier. (One media account reported that Sheryl had insisted that the dog go first). With Rosie safe and sound, Graham returned for Sheryl. All are doing fine.

An explosion has injured eight people at the Earle Naval Weapons Station in Middletown, N.J. Seven were treated at area hospitals and released, including a civilian firefighter. One sailor stayed to undergo surgery for a broken arm. The Navy hasn't released the victims' names. A spokeswoman says the explosion was accidental and that nearby ammunition and ordnance were not affected. The blast occurred in a boathouse where the victims were doing maintenance on an aluminum utility vessel.

Sometimes I wonder when black people will reject the patronizing insults of white progressives and their black handmaidens. After CNN’s Piers Morgan’s interview with the key witness in the George Zimmerman trial, he said: “Rachel Jeantel is not uneducated. She’s a smart cookie.” That’s a remarkable conclusion. Here’s a 19-year-old young lady, still in high school, who cannot read cursive and appears to be barely literate. Morgan may have meant Jeantel is smart — for a black person.

Progressives treat blacks as victims in need of kid glove treatment and special favors, such as racial quotas and preferences. This approach has been tried in education for decades and has revealed itself a failure. I say it’s time we explore other approaches. One approach is suggested by sports. Blacks excel — perhaps dominate is a better word — in sports such as basketball, football and boxing to such an extent that blacks are 80 percent of professional basketball players, are 66 percent of professional football players and, for decades, have dominated most professional boxing categories.

On August 17, 2013, at approximately 2:30 a.m. Ocean City police responded just south of the intersection at 62ndStreet and Coastal Highway in reference to a motor vehicle collision involving a pedestrian. The pedestrian, a 26-year-old male of Virginia, was crossing Coastal Highway from west to east and was struck in northbound lane three. The vehicle then fled the scene.

During the investigation, police found a vehicle part near the collision site that is believed to be from the vehicle involved. The part is thought to have possibly come from a newer model Volkswagen Jetta. A search of the vehicle was conducted with negative results. The victim, whose name is not being released at this time, was transported by Ocean City EMS to Peninsula Regional Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

Anyone with information about the vehicle involved in this incident is asked to contact PFC Joseph Centofranchi at 410-520-5381. Those with information may remain anonymous.

A new study from the Center for Immigration Studies found that 57.5 million working-age Americans are either unemployed or currently out of the labor market, a figure that matches what some estimate to be the number of immigrant workers that would be brought into the country by the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” immigration bill.

“The number of working-age (16 to 65) native-born Americans who are not working — unemployed or out of the labor market — stood at 57.5 million in the second quarter of 2013, a figure that has barely budged in the last three years,” CIS’s Steven Camarotawrote. “Partly on the grounds that there are not enough workers in the United States, the Gang of Eight Immigration bill (S.744) that recently passed the Senate would double future legal immigration."

"Yet the more than 57 million working-age natives not working is 17 million larger than in the second quarter of 2000," Camarota explained. "The large increases in future legal immigration in S.744 seem out touch with the realities of the U.S. labor market.”

A military judge on Wednesday morning sentenced Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.

Manning, 25, was convicted last month of multiple charges, including violations of the Espionage Act for copying and disseminating the documents while serving as an intelligence analyst at a forward operating base in Iraq. He faced up to 90 years in prison.

WASHINGTON – Bill Clinton’s foundation has spent more than $50 million on travel expenses since 2003, an analysis of the non-profit’s tax forms reveal.

The web of foundations run by the former president spent an eye-opening $12.1 million on travel in 2011 alone, according to an internal audit conducted by foundation accountants. That’s enough to by 12,000 air tickets costing $1,000 each, or 33 air tickets each day of the year.

That overall figure includes travel costs for the William J. Clinton Foundation (to which Hillary and Chelsea are now attached) of $4.2 million on travel in 2011, the most recent year where figures are available.

Beef from cattle fed drugs such as Merck’s Zilmax and Optaflexx from Eli Lilly Co’s Elanco Animal Health can be labeled as hormone-free and antibiotic-free because, under U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, beta-agonists are not growth hormones or antibiotics. Such meat can also be labeled “natural,” which seems rather inaccurate, given that animals fed beta-agonists in the weeks before they are slaughtered add thirty pounds to their body weight; the drugs also reduce the fat content of the beef.

Yesterday, I joined Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker, State Superintendent of Schools Dr. Lillian Lowery, and Prince George’s County Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kevin Maxwell at Barnaby Manor Elementary School and Oxon Hill High School to welcome students for their first day of the 2013-2014 academic year. It was great to meet with some of Maryland’s best educators and brightest students.

In Maryland, together we’ve chosen to invest record funding in K-12 education and set the nation’s first specific STEM education standards that support educators in preparing our students for the 21st century economy. Over the next few years, we will continue to support our students and educators as we transition to better prepare them to compete globally.

While many Wicomico County Parents are discriminated against, Teachers in the same position are laughing all the way to the Bank.How so, well, if your a Teacher and you have a child of age for Pre-K, their children are automatically accepted into the program. Yes, even if they are married and have two incomes. It's one of those, do as I say, not as I do deals. Salisbury News has confirmed this is the case and that there are multiple Teachers who have children enrolled in the Program.

The Tax Foundation published a new map Monday showing the migration of income between states in the decade 2000-2010, with Maryland losing $5.5 billion in taxable income along with 66,000 residents.

The map has been making the rounds on Facebook, posted by conservative politicians and activists as further proof that Maryland taxes are driving people out of the state. The map is based on tax return data from the Internal Revenue Service, the same data Change Maryland used last year to show Maryland losing residents to states such as Virginia, a story picked up by national media.

On the map, the losing states are shown in purple and pink, and are generally higher tax states. The interactive map of the Tax Foundation website links back to the fuller data on which the map is based.More

El Paso, Texas -- The El Paso Rescue Mission shelter stands approximately 100 yards from the U.S./Mexico border. Border Patrol agents have been ordered by their higher-ups not to go there and enforce U.S. laws on the property, according to the Vice President of the Local 1929 Border Patrol Council, Stu Harris.

“They will not allow Border Patrol agents to go onto the property to enforce U.S. laws,” he said. He further stated that the border fence in the area was left unfinished and that another fence between the border and the shelter was left damaged and opened (as shown in the video below). “We have about 100 panels of border fence just sitting there at our nearby training area,” he said.